DAILY NATION Wednesday August 12, 2015 DEADLY | High blood pressure danger International News 35 Amnesty votes on backing decriminalising sex trade DUBLIN, Tuesday Amnesty International was going through a fraught vote today on whether the human rights organisation should back decriminalising prostitution, following a heated debate on the divisive issue. Some 400 delegates from 70 countries have gathered in Dublin and will vote on the draft policy. If it passes, it will help form Amnesty’s policy on the global sex trade. “We want to see a legal framework in place whereby all elements of sex work are decriminalised,” Thomas Schultz-Jagow, Amnesty’s senior director of campaigns and communications, told AFP. He said there was “evidence that criminalisation of consensual adult sex work can lead to increased human rights violations against sex workers.” But controversially, the document proposes decrimi- nalising third parties involved in prostitution, such as brothel operators, alongside sex workers. In response, the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) penned an open letter saying Amnesty’s name would be “severely tarnished” if it approved the policy, which it said sides with “exploiters rather 400 PHOTO | AFP This May 8, 2015 photo taken in Abidjan shows women who use skin whitening cosmetics. Chasing fair skin, Ivorians ignore bans Some women using whitening creams blame the pressure especially from men ABIDJAN, Tuesday A t just 26, Fatou’s skin is marbled from layer on layer of whitening cream. Some even call her a “salamander” woman after the little reptile with light spots and translucent skin. But nothing can stop the hairdresser in Cote d’Ivoire’s commercial capital Abidjan from using the skin-lightening cream in her quest for a paler complexion. “I love light skin,” Fatou said. “I can’t stop.” Many Ivorian women — as well as more and more men — are using creams with dangerous chemicals for depigmentation, despite government attempts to stop the practice. In late April, Cote d’Ivoire banned whitening creams because of the negative health effects associated with them, ranging from white spots and acne to cancer. If applied liberally, the cosmetics can also cause high blood pressure and diabetes, according to Professor Elidje Ekra, a dermatologist at Abidjan’s Treichville university hospital. The banned products include creams containing mercury, certain steroids, vitamin A, or with hydroquinone levels above two percent. Hydroquinone is often used in black and white photography and is banned as a skin-lightening ingredient in Europe as it is considered a potential carcinogen. The dangers don’t seem to deter consumers, though. While no official statistics are available, “tchatchos” — or those with lightened skin, often recognisable by their darker knuckles and elbows — are omnipresent in Abidjan. Businesses continue to sell the whitening products, because they know people will continue to buy them despite the risks. “We know that our lighten- ing products are dangerous,” an executive for an Ivorian cosmetic company said, adding that a ban would be counterproductive. “It would push consumers to make their own products, which would be even worse. “At least we know the composition.” Some women say that it’s societal pressure — particularly from men — that forces them to lighten their skin. “It’s men that push women to become lighter,” said MarieGrace Amani, who has been whitening her skin for the past four years. Cote d’Ivoire’s Health Minister Raymonde Goudou Coffie agrees. Ivorian men “love women who shine in the night”, she told AFP. “They bring light and glow in the bedroom.” Three months after the new law was introduced — which could entail a fine of 50,000 to 350,000 CFA francs (76 to 534 euros / US$83 to $585) for violators — salons are still advertising their lightening products. (AFP) than the exploited”. “There’s no logic behind the premise that in order to protect those who are exploited you have to decriminalise the exploiter. It makes no sense,” CATW executive director Taina Bien Aime told AFP. “It is really important for Delegates at meeting Amnesty to understand the world is watching and they would really lose a tremendous amount of credibility as a human rights organisation if this is supported.” (AFP) We know that our lightening products are dangerous’’ An executive for an Ivorian cosmetic company